We'll Meet Again
by samtana
Summary: De-bugging the Joo Dees might have something to do with Aang's troubles. And why is there more than one Lo and Li pair? It all could relate to a reunion long overdue.
1. Chapter 1

I still don't own Avatar.

Chapter 2

Aang had his first nightmare of this sort in the Serpent's Pass, of all places. One would think that any of his dreams from that night would be about Appa. His mind, surely, would try and force him to understand that his sealed-off act was hurting him more than helping, or at least relayed messages of sadness and loneliness. He should have dreamt of Appa's muzzle, of Appa's cage, of Appa's tears. But he didn't. He dreamed of Koh.

Why Aang was dreaming of Koh at that particular time was part of a mystery that would take some time for Aang to solve. Of course, Aang had no way of knowing at the time that this nightmare would continue to haunt him throughout his travels and even after the end of the war, shifting and changing in his mind like the world around him. Whatever shape the nightmare came in, it always began with Aang standing in the mouth of his spirit acquaintance's cave.

He called out, as usual. "Hello? Koh? I'm back. Are you here?" He searched farther into the cave, hearing drops of water echoing around him, but listening for the clacking of giant centipede legs. Single-mindedly, Aang explored the deep cavern for the face-stealer, but he could only find darkness and amorphous echoes. "Where are you?" Aang called. "Today's the day, right? Why can't I find you?"

The first time Aang had this dream, on the Serpent's Pass, it ended like this:

After searching for what seemed to be hours, Aang's eyes started to adjust to the darkness, or there was a light in the far distance seeping in and partially illuminating his way. Whatever it was, he kept marching forward, calling out for Koh, watching as the walls of the cave grew clearer and clearer until it eventually became familiar. He looked up to see a cluster of unlit crystals on the cave ceiling, and suddenly he realized where he was. Then he was taken over by fear. If there was one place where Koh could capitalize on his weakness and steal his face, it was here. He turned back and forgot everything but his instinct to run back into the darkness, scrambling with all his might and speed to flee the doomed cave. Enveloped in darkness again, he had nothing to do but run and run and run until he hit a bend in the cave, and just as he was about to slam into the rocky wall he snapped back into consciousness, safely under the moon on the small sliver of land that knifed through the sea.

As far as nightmares were concerned, this was not so bad for Aang. Its consistent recurrence was the big trouble. Not only that, the dream began to develop as time went on. While he was recuperating from Azula's lightning strike, entrapped by weeks of sleep, the dream ended with him trampling over countless nameless bones as he fled Koh's Cave of Two Lovers. By the time he had failed at the invasion, those bones had become those of Monk Gyatso, just as he remembered from his discovery at the Southern Air Temple, talisman and all. The clarity of the dream's ending became clearer with each repetition until Aang felt himself crushing the bones of 100,000 Monk Gyatso skeletons as he sprinted away.

For some reason, Lo and Li made Aang think of the dream, and it never failed to come at night ever since they had been apprehended. His subconscious was telling him something, alerting him to the connection between these twins and Koh's cave, though Aang couldn't begin to fathom what that connection might have been. Zuko was dealing with them himself; he had known them growing up. But all it took was a small peek in their direction to trigger Aang's thoughts of Koh's cave and the expanse of bones.

The ancient identical twins, perhaps Bumi's age, wore what used to be elegant Fire Nation robes, reduced to ragged clothes that could barely pass for foot towels due to the pair's extended hideout in the forest (Zuko admitted he had no idea of how they could have survived so long on their own considering their age). Their faces, though, still beamed of life and purpose, even through the wrinkles that seemed to concentrate in on their noses. It made Aang think of trampling over a pit of Gyatso skeletons, and he had no clue as to why. Actually, the dream had started to fade in intensity ever since the war ended, so it was more than a little startling to be thinking about it again after all this time.

Then the twins introduced themselves to him:

"Hello, my name is Lo," said Li.

"Hello, my name is Li," said Lo.

And so Aang's nightmares returned to him.

As he woke up on this particular night, panting and sweaty after three days of frightening dreams in a row, he realized his dream had changed further, ending with him frantically digging his way out of a pile of bones and Air Nomad talismans, each one belonging to his beloved childhood mentor. Even upon awakening Aang found it hard to transition from fear to any other emotion, but when he finally did he felt only disturbed. He stepped off his sleeping ledge and walked out to the balcony of the Ba Sing Se house, his feet remembering the crunching of bones beneath them as if they were still walking over them.

Aang looked out over the city, the sun beginning to rise slowly and majestically over the grand wall in the distance, and he wondered what his recurring dream could possibly mean. Why was Koh's cave the same as the Cave of Two Lovers? Why were Gyatso's bones littered across the ground? And why was he so desperate to meet with Koh in the first place? These were all questions he had asked himself before, and, as usual, there was no answer to be found. Instead Aang tried to bring his thoughts to his fondest memory of this balcony, the kiss he shared with Katara. He felt that he needed her support more than anything right now.

As if she knew he was thinking about her, Katara's footsteps began to pat lightly against the smooth surface of the ground behind him. "You had another nightmare, Aang?" she said softly.

Aang nodded. "The same one," he said. "It's always the same one, about Koh and Gyatso and the Cave."

Katara rested her hand on his shoulder. "And this has continued even though you've been drinking Iroh's tea?"

Aang smiled sadly. "The tea helps the most when I am awake. Other than that, there's nothing it can do."

"I'm so sorry," yawned Katara. She was such a saint to bear all these early mornings with him, not to mention their late nights working on the Reconstruction together. Combined they were barely sleeping enough for a single person to be comfortable with. "You could really use your sleep now that we're investigating Lo and Li."

"I'll be fine," said Aang.

"You know," Katara began in a small voice, blushing a little, "if it would help at all, I could sleep in your bed with you. I know I said no at the beginning, but maybe, you know, if I was closer it would ease your mind."

Aang couldn't help but laugh, and he felt himself blushing as well. He couldn't deny how badly he wanted it, but he thought of Koh lying in wait in the Cave of Two Lovers for Aang's emotional vulnerability, and he shook his head. "No, what you said was right. We're too young for that right now. Especially me."

"Oh, okay," said Katara, her voice falling.

"It takes a lot of will power for me to say that," smiled Aang, catching the sadness in Katara's reaction.

She leaned her head into his shoulder and yawned again. "Well, sometimes I wish you didn't have so much will power."

"Hey, it's what you said first." Aang kissed her on her forehead, happy to see that she was smiling now. With all the work the two of them had been doing lately, there didn't seem to be much cause for smiling. "Either way," said Aang, "I don't think this nightmare will just go away, even if you were with me for every moment of the night. I need to resolve something inside myself to make these dreams go away."

"But what does it have to do with Koh?" asked Katara. "I don't want you to see him again. He's dangerous."

"The last time we saw each other he said we would meet again, but we never have. But, as you said, he's dangerous. So if I ever have to meet him again, there would have to be a very good reason."

"Well, I hope there is no reason good enough," said Katara flatly.

"But he seemed so sure of it," said Aang with a sigh. "It makes me think that he knows something I don't."

Katara grunted. Aang glanced over to see that her eyes were closed, peacefully lingering between sleep and consciousness. Her dreams these days were probably light, and they probably involved the two of them sleeping in the same bed. "Let's not talk about this anymore," she said. "We've got to meet with Lo and Li again tomorrow, and it won't help to be thinking about these nightmares. I'd rather enjoy this sunrise."

"Yes," Aang agreed, looking out over the city with sadness and remorse. "I would like to enjoy it, too." The silence was terrible. Katara's soft breathing wasn't enough to drown out the clacking of Koh's centipede legs inside Aang's head.

_To be continued…_

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Sorry for the delay. This one was picky.

-samtana


	2. Chapter 2

I don't own Avatar.

**Chapter 3**

Sokka saw the explosion from close up, and it would change the way he would hear out of his right ear for the rest of his life.

The events that led to the explosion were nothing remarkable, nothing more than what was routinely going on in his and Suki's lives. It was common for them to patrol the area. With so much construction going on around there, so much material wealth suddenly injected into the inexperienced village, there were bound to be the chosen few greedy individuals who, rubbing their hands together, would not be able to resist trying to sabotage the project. Plus there could easily be some supremacist loyalists who could try something funny, though only someone truly desperate, ambitious, or insane would ever impede upon such an extreme place. Either way, this was Sokka's home, and his daily defense of it was not out of the ordinary.

What was out of the ordinary, the only thing out of the ordinary, in fact, was the explosion itself. Explosions rarely graced the icy South Pole. None of the area was flammable, so it never combusted. And yet this was most certainly an explosion, Complete with the ball of flames and intense warmth that lit up Sokka's right side.

Since the war had ended, Sokka had opted to join Master Pakku with the rebuilding of the Southern Water Tribe. Since it was obvious Katara was going to stay with Aang, he figured he had a duty to return to his grandmother and his tribe on both their behalves. He didn't mind so much, actually. He liked being the strongest of the Southern Water Tribe warriors, especially the way his father paraded him about like a trophy hero. Most notable among the enamored faces were those of the young warriors he had been charged with training before the Avatar had been rediscovered. The boys, still young, were much more enthused to learn fighting methods from him than they had been before, now that he was an official hero.

And besides, he missed his tribe. Could a simpler explanation for his decision to return exist?

Suki had decided to come with him, deciding that the two of them were inseparable at this point. Sokka had warned her that she wouldn't like the South Pole for its snow and dreary temperature, but she didn't care and followed him nonetheless. She cared now. Sokka knew she would, but to his surprise her dissatisfaction in her surroundings manifested itself in a profound stubbornness, and she refused to return to Kioshi Island. This was a very awkward stance for her to take with regards to Sokka. The coldness of the air had managed to seep into her personality, and she wouldn't snuggle with him once the day was done, no matter how much warmer they would have been sharing body heat, not to mention happier.

When Sokka threw himself on top of her to save her from the blast, it was the closest the pair had been in months.

Lately, whenever it was time for guard duty, Sokka and Suki took the opportunity to be sour with each other. Early in their stay, Sokka had been able to warm her up with the mention of a pleasant memory.

"I know you're sick of wearing that parka, but I promise I'll wear the Kioshi outfit again when we're out of here, okay?"

"The Serpent's Pass was pretty tough, too, but at least we have each other, right?"

And so on. Nowadays, though, romantic fluff talk wasn't enough. Suki always had a sarcastic, dismissive response that sent them both into a dour mood.

"If we ever manage to get out of this place, you mean."

"At least we didn't have to stay in the Serpent's Pass for this long."

If he cared for Suki the way he used to, he would have probably been hurt by these remarks. He still cared for her, of course, but not the way he used to. He couldn't help it. How could he, with her treating him this way? On the patrols they would find the time for either silence or harsh words for each other. The South Pole was too much for someone who wasn't used to it.

The explosion changed all of this. It gave Suki a job to do, more important than being a simple guard. More importantly, it brought Sokka and her back to the Earth Kingdom, where she immediately grew sunnier, even if she didn't revert completely to the person she used to be. Sometimes a deep chill can't be overcome so easily.

As for Sokka, he lost the majority of the hearing in his right ear.

They were patrolling the walls in the morning, the sun still low in the sky, when it happened. It was redundant, Suki complained. The wall's purpose was to keep people out, so why would we have to patrol it? She had a point. The wall that Pakku and the rest of the Northern Water Tribe waterbenders had helped construct in Sokka's absence was impressive enough to equal the height of the towering snowy hills all around. The once unassuming village now stood out boldly in the scenery. It would, surely, be very difficult for a renegade attack to break through these walls. But it was Sokka's home, and he felt the urge to defend it as best he could. And if that meant parading along the top of the wall while his discontented girlfriend complained, so be it.

His eye wandering mechanically, Sokka noticed something strange at the base of the wall. It looked from a distance that the shadows were falling at an awkward angle around a small point, as if the sun had decided to skip making shadows at a small area against the curved wall. He made a double take, looking closely to make sure he wasn't seeing things. He wasn't. Suki reluctantly followed him in his investigation.

Someone had carved a perfect nook in the heart of the snowy wall, so perfect and straight that without the help of the sun Sokka would never have noticed a thing. The person who had been working on this must have been doing so for weeks. The cave, large enough to crawl into, seemed to dive about halfway through the wall above. Despite the small portion of sun that shone on the cave's side, Sokka could not see what was inside. Nor did he want to. Whatever was inside stank in a disturbingly familiar way.

"What is that smell?" whined Suki, sticking her head into the entrance. "It smells like perfume gone wrong. I hate oils like that."

Sokka had forgotten that smell since returning to the South Pole. It was not scent Sokka was accustomed to smelling, having not spent time fighting firebenders lately.

Instinct took over. His body hit Suki's as the sound went off, and by the time he felt the heat at his side the two had fallen to the ground. The heat of the explosion was quickly mitigated by the tirade of snow that dropped from the crumbling wall above. Sokka did not remain on the ground, pulling Suki to her feet and jumping through the avalanche before they could be completely covered.

"What was that?" asked Suki, her fans drawn.

"What did you say?" asked Sokka, rubbing his right ear.

He didn't hear what Suki said the second time, either, because his concentration shifted completely and instantly to his eyes. In the distance, at the point where the wall curved out of his sight, he could see the image, clear as day, of two elderly women running as fast as their weary legs could carry them. Sokka only saw them for a moment before they slipped behind the curvature of the wall, but he knew instantly that those were the ones from the portraits Zuko had sent him, the portraits of two top operatives in the Resistance. Sokka drew his boomerang.

"Send a messenger hawk out to Aang," he shouted as he sprinted off. "We've found Lo and Li!"

Of course, Sokka had no way of knowing that the Avatar was, at that very moment, having a dreadfully frustrating conversation with Lo and Li.

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I woke up this morning and thought, "The next chapter in 'We'll Meet Again' needs an explosion. So here we go.

But don't worry, everyone. I do have a plan for the story arc here. Still, though, some things are best left for spontaneity. Like explosions. And, believe me, this story needed an explosion just about now. If you're ever in a bind for storytelling, just add an explosion. It always helps.

Thanks to John Charles Chasteen. Right from this chapter's first sentence his writing style has nestled its way eagerly into mine.

-samtana


	3. Chapter 3

Sorry for the long wait, everyone. I was going to post by the time I owned Avatar, but my Avatar Abduction And Acquiring Action Plan, or AAAAA Plan for short, has run into a few bumps. I still don't own Avatar, but I'm posting anyway.

Actually my reasoning for not posting this sooner is a mixture of schoolwork and personal illness, but that's not nearly as interesting, don't you think?

**We'll Meet Again Chapter 4**

"They're definitely different people," said Toph, as if she were pointing out that Aang was still thirteen years old. "I think the two of us are more similar than any of them." She could hear Aang tensing up even more, his breathing shortening and quickening by just a little bit.

"But that's only because you can't see them," said Aang hurriedly. "They look exactly the same, you have to believe me. It's creepy. Well, you remember Ju Dee. They all have that same looking…"

"Will you shut up about how thy look?" groaned Toph, crossing her arms and facing Aang more directly. "There are four other senses to use, aren't there? I shouldn't even have to tell you that."

"Yes," stammered Aang. Toph loved it when he got defensive like this. It made her feel in control. Oh, the wonderful power! "But they even act the same," said Aang. "You heard how they were talking. They all act exactly the same."

"I did hear them," said Toph defiantly. "They each had a different voice."

"No, they – oh, wait, you're right. Huh."

"Listen to me. Do you know where your nickname 'Twinkletoes' comes from?" asked Toph. "Do you?"

Aang took a deep, thin-sounding breath in. "Because I'm light on my feet?" he asked, the tone of his voice arching to his falsetto in a weak finale to his questioning sentence.

"So does a Twinkle Toe look different from other toes?" asked Toph. "What do you think a Twinkle Toe looks like?"

"A shiny toe?"

"You know what I mean."

"You're right, I know what you mean," sighed Aang wearily. He was sounding more and more tired as the conversation went on, a pleasant aural reminder of how dominant Toph was in conversation with him. "A Twinkle Toe doesn't look like anything. I think my toes probably look like most other toes."

"It's a comment about how heavy you are," said Toph flatly, the muscles in her eyes lazily drifting out of her control, falling with her head away from Aang's presence. "And it's a comment about how you walk. Those Lo and Li women, they each walk differently from each other. Don't you remember?"

"Remember?" said Aang contemplatively. "They don't walk differently, do they? I wasn't paying attention…"

"Why not?" barked Toph, snapping her head back up towards him. "I can't believe you're an earthbender and you didn't notice that they walked differently! Geeze, you've got so much more earthbending training to do!"

"Yes, Sifu Toph," said Aang quietly, probably through his hands.

"Some of them walked quicker than others," continued Toph, leaning assertively closer, close enough to smell the sweat on his forehead. "Some of them took longer strides. One of them even had a small limp. If you weren't so focused on the shape they make expressions, maybe you would have noticed this!"

"Okay, okay, I get it," said Aang, obviously trying to sound tough and equal, yet failing so delightfully completely. "They all walk differently. What does it all mean?"

Toph backed off and stuck a finger up her nose. "Who knows? I'm not the detective." She shrugged and flicked the booger over the edge of the balcony. "But, if you want my opinion, it means that the women weren't all Lo and Li before. They weren't just born with the same face. It was an acquired trait."

"Oh," said Aang, thinking to himself. "That makes sense. It reminds me of the Ju Dees when you put it that way. Actually, it's pretty obvious, but I've never really thought about how the Ju Dees became Ju Dees."

"How _did_ they become Ju Dees?" asked Toph, making the tone of her voice clearly expressing her desire not to have her question answered. "Maybe if we can find that out, we can change them back."

"More importantly," said Aang, finally adopting the serious voice of a true leader, "we can find out why there are more than two Los and Lis."

There was a pause, during which Aang's body weight had shifted away from her and towards the balcony, so Toph also faced the city proper, since it appeared to be proper decorum. "Do you want me to talk with the Ju Dees, too?" she asked.

"If you don't mind," said Aang duly.

"Haru, too," she said. "He's been working on the case all this time. He'll probably be able to help a little. Besides," she said with a smirk, "he's a real earthbender."

Aang snickered to himself, somewhat sadly. "A real earthbender," he repeated with somber amusement. The wind blew, making Toph's bangs brush up against her eyelids in a way that tickled just enough to be annoying. Aang, of course, was bald. Toph had never heard the wind blowing through string-like hairs on top of his head. There was no hair on his head. Most people Toph met had hair on their heads. That was probably something that looked different about Aang compared to other people, and that was probably important, somehow.

"So," said Toph to break the silence, "What's Katara up to?"

"She's volunteering at the hospital today," said Aang absently. "She does it twice each week."

"That's nice," said Toph, equally as absently.

"Yeah, it is," said Aang. "It's very, you know, noble of her."

"Yeah, noble. Definitely."

The wind had died down again, though a few leaves were still tumbling around the balcony. The two of them, Aang and Toph, were supposed to be earthbending training right now, but Toph didn't feel teaching. Perhaps she was too exhausted from giving lessons in Omashu, or perhaps she just wanted to spend time with Aang. It had been a while, it felt. Although, at this point, she had no recollection of all the things she had been aching to tell him about since they had parted, even though she was sure there were thousands. Even so, she didn't want to seem to eager. It wasn't her style.

The voice of a little girl drifted up like a floating knife from below the balcony: "Ew! Mommy, there's a booger on the ground! And it's still wet!"

"Don't touch it!" said the exasperated voice of the girl's mother.

"You know, Toph," said Aang, shifting his weight back and forth in a rocking motion. "After what happened with Ozai and the Reconstruction and everything, I feel like I've had to do so much all of a sudden. It's like, people need so much from me like before, but this time it's in a leadership way. But whenever I'm with you, even when the war wasn't over yet, I never feel so much like a kid. You make me feel, I don't know, really young."

Toph snorted, not knowing how exactly to respond to this. "You're thirteen."

"I know," said Aang, ceasing his rocking. "But you're the only one who makes me feel like a kid."

"Well," said Toph slowly to give herself a chance to think about what to say. "If you want me to treat you like an adult, you should probably learn that earthbending."

"No, that's not what I mean," said Aang. "I mean to say thank you."

"Oh," said Toph, threading her fingers together and trying her hardest not to smile. "You're welcome."

Standing up with assured purpose, Aang put his hand on the balcony, still facing the grand and ugly city of Ba Sing Se. "I think I need to pay Central Prison a visit," he said. "If the Ju Dees and Lo and Lis are connected, maybe Long Feng knows something about it all." Considering this for a moment, he added, "No, I'll have Haru do it. It would be best for Long Feng to see a face he hasn't already seen."

"You know," said Toph in a medium voice, which was about as low as she could talk. "In a weird way, you make me feel like a kid, too. In a good way, I mean."

Later, in the dead of night, the cabbage merchant cursed to himself as he rubbed a wet rag up and down the wheel of his cart. How in the world, while selling in the twinkling clean Upper Ring, could he have run over a booger?

_To Be Continued…_

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The booger part of this chapter: based on a true story.

Well, almost.

Actually, not even almost.

Before I started watching Avatar I was writing a long piece about a blind kid fighter. Then I started watching Avatar and met Toph, who will make me look like a copycat someday, ie. when I finally finish that other piece. However, all this writing from the perspective of blindness helped this chapter go more smoothly than it could have. Isn't that interesting?

Well, almost.

Actually, not even almost.

-samtana


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